Here we are…SUMMER! As always it is full of fun and entertainment and all around enjoying family time and doing this for as cheap as possible. After talking with a co-worker and seeing how her summers go, I thought I would share her amazing idea of Summer Fun Theme Weeks that are easy to set up and are extremely frugal!
I don’t talk much about what my husband does but I will say that he works for the government and has been dealing with furlough days. Add to that some unexpected medical bills and a vet bill and money is much tighter lately than normal. I knew that I needed to have some fun activities this summer that were relatively cheap and entertaining, so I followed my friends directions and came up with some great themes for each week with activities and food to keep my kids entertained.
For our family, all of this is based off a great movie package that our local theater sells that offers 10 kids movies for $5.00! Granted these movies are older releases and many are available on Netflix right now but it is still fun to take them to a theater to see the movies, even if they are older.
Each week I will be showcasing a new theme week with a recap of the previous week. Up first is “Earth Week”. Check out our schedule below and feel free to Pin it!
Earth Week is all about giving back and taking care of, and respecting the Earth and every creature on it. I think it is the perfect way to start summer and I am so excited to complete this week!
Movie Monday: Each week we will start with the movie. The movie our theater is offering is “The Lorax”. Now we wont be able to make the actual movie in the theater this week, so I will be streaming this on Netflix at home after our swim lessons. To make this a bit more special I am going to make popcorn and get some cheap candy snacks from the dollar store.
Time Off Tuesday: I have graduate classes every Tuesday through summer so my kids will be spending the majority of Tuesday’s with their grandma. If you are doing this, take a day to relax, it is not necessary to run around all the time. If you need to keep your kids busy have them plant some seeds or clean up your yard.
Water Wednesday: My kids LOVE water and are taking swimming lessons over the next couple weeks. There are tons of free splash pads and cheap outdoor pool options in our area. This week we will be hitting up our local splash pad for a day of fun. What is great about this park is that the water is recycled (and treated) and we are not running the water at home and wasting that precious resource.
Travel Thursday: Each week I want to take my kids to some place that is educational if the budget allows. We have a zoo membership so essentially this is already paid for. What a better way to celebrate the Earth than learning about the organisms that inhabit it!
Family Friday: We will culminate each theme week with family time that includes activities and special snacks or dinners that the kids can help us make. For Earth week we will be going to our neighborhood parks and cleaning up trash and then we will be dropping off 3-5 random acts of kindness (RAK). After we come home and clean up we will then make barbaloot snacks and orange smoothies. I will share these recipes next week!
I hope that you follow along through our summer theme weeks journey. The beauty of this is that you can just pick a movie that your family enjoys and create little 1-3 hour activities to do with them to reinforce some of the quality themes or ideas that those movies may highlight. I hope that you join us on these summer theme weeks! Hopefully they go well and this summer is a blast.